


Ancient Evil

by Laura_trekkie



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: M/M, Threesome - M/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-01
Updated: 2011-05-01
Packaged: 2017-10-18 21:14:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 20,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/193368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laura_trekkie/pseuds/Laura_trekkie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John gets more than he bargained for on an exploration of the city.  John angst ensues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ancient Evil

**Author's Note:**

> This was my very first fic ever, written back in 2005. I hope it isn't OOC. I decided to let the reader add Carson and Radek's accents, rather than try to write them myself.
> 
> Beta by: Huntress.
> 
> Spoilers: Written during season one, so I don't think any of it can be considered a spoiler now.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate: Atlantis or any of the characters/places therein. No profit made from this fanwork.

“Are you done yet, McKay?” asked Major John Sheppard as he and his team stood in yet another empty room in Atlantis’ lower levels. They’d been exploring the seemingly endless supply of rooms for the best part of the day, it was nearing 7pm now and John was getting hungry. John was also bored. He suspected he wasn’t the only one after glancing at Ford and Teyla.

“Yes, plainly I’m done, Major. That’s why I’m still standing here looking for energy readings!” This wasn’t the first time John had asked the question and Rodney felt he was justified in being irritated by this lack of interest.

“But there’s nothing here, Rodney,” John didn’t whine. He never whined, he left that to McKay.

“Oh? And how do you know that, pray tell? Did you ask Atlantis?” Rodney sneered; his voice was laced with sarcasm.

The sneer quickly disappeared, though, when John replied, “No, but I could if you wanted.”

“Of course you…wait…what? You can do that? Really?” Rodney was almost bouncing at this revelation.

So much so that John couldn’t resist a bit of teasing. “Well yeah, can’t you?” he smirked.

Rodney glared, but was too excited by this new titbit of information to come up with a suitably sharp retort, his mind filling with ideas about how to use this newly discovered ability. His brain got hung up on ‘newly discovered’ though and he turned an accusatory gaze on John. “Wait!” he raised a finger and pointed it at John, “Why didn’t you mention this before? Just think how useful you could have been!” he exclaimed.

“Exactly,” was John’s reply, causing Rodney to be bemused by the apparent non-sequiter.

“What?” he asked.

“Self preservation, McKay. I knew if I told you, I’d end up being dragged into every room in this damn place. And the few minutes I’d have spare after that would be spent being poked and prodded endlessly by Beckett.”

Rodney saw his point but wasn’t about to let John know it. Instead, “Oh, I don’t know, being poked by Carson isn’t _always_ bad,” he smirked.

This caused Ford to make a small choking noise and the look on his face was a pained ‘TMI’ expression. Teyla simply smiled, a smile that in anyone else would have been an eye roll and an exasperated “Men!” A flicker of something unreadable sped across John’s face, but was quickly covered with his usual smirk and, “Not in front of the children, Rodney.”

“Fine, yes, so…” Rodney suddenly remembered that he was meant to be irritated with John and waved his hands in a ‘get on with it’ fashion. John sighed, then closed his eyes and concentrated, the other three watching him closely, not realising they were holding their breath. The waiting was too much for Rodney, who let out a sudden, “Well?”

John’s eyes snapped open, he frowned and muttered, “There’s something…” his voice and expression distant. Before Rodney could do more than draw breath, John abruptly twisted on his heel and strode towards the door. “Major!” Rodney exclaimed simultaneously with Ford’s “Sir!”. But John just carried on walking purposefully, leaving Ford, Teyla and Rodney scrambling to collect their gear and follow him. He didn’t go far, just a few doors further down the corridor. He stopped in front of the door for a second, then stepped inside and walked over to one wall.

The others found him staring blankly at it. “Major Sheppard?” asked Teyla, reaching to put a hand on his arm when he didn’t respond. John glanced briefly at her, then Ford and finally Rodney, still frowning and giving off that ‘somewhere else’ vibe.

“Major?” Rodney asked.

John ignored him, reaching a slightly trembling hand towards the wall. Rodney grabbed hold of his wrist and pulled his hand away. “What are you doing? We have no idea what’s in there!”

“I have to open it,” was all John said before turning his attention back to the wall. Rodney frowned at this and checked his scanner for any energy readings.

There was definitely something behind the wall, but it was difficult to get a proper reading. “Don’t open it just yet, I want to get Radek down here for some proper scans first.” He still had John’s wrist in his hand, but let it go when John nodded. As soon as he released him though, John seemed to snap back into whatever trance he’d been in before and reached out again. This time he brushed the wall before anyone could get hold of him.

A section of the wall slid aside revealing a small room. The lights came on as John took an unsteady step inside. They didn’t have much chance to see anything, however, because as soon as John crossed the threshold, he inhaled sharply and crumbled to the floor as his knees gave out. Ford was nearest, having been preparing to shoot whatever was making his CO act so strangely. Instead he leaned down and hauled John back into the main room and set him down on the floor. Teyla crouched in front of John, “Major Sheppard, what is wrong?” John, who didn’t seem able to tear his gaze away from the newly revealed room, didn’t reply.

“Right then,” Rodney clapped his hands together briskly, trying to mask his concern, “I think it’s best if we get you to the infirmary, Major.” John still didn’t move, so Ford and Rodney pulled him to his feet.

John’s expression seemed to clear and he tipped his head in Rodney’s direction, “Rodney?” he whispered, sounding confused, “What…” he trailed off, distracted by whatever was in the room.

“Would it not be better to have Dr. Beckett come here?” Teyla asked, “The major does not seem well enough to walk all the way to the infirmary.” This was true enough, the only reason he was upright was because Ford and Rodney both had an arm over their shoulder. Rodney considered for a moment, then shook his head.

“No, I think it’s best to get him away from that room. He’s not actually injured, so I’m hoping whatever’s got hold of him will weaken the further away he gets from it.” Besides, Carson will want to hook him up to all sorts of machines, so he’ll have to go there anyway.”

Teyla nodded at this, “Very well, Doctor McKay. I will radio Doctor’s Weir and Beckett and tell them what has happened.” They began their slow way back to the inhabited levels of Atlantis. Rodney’s theory seemed to be holding as John relied less and less on his and Ford’s support the further they got from the room, but he still had the glazed look and hadn’t said a word since whispering Rodney’s name. He kept glancing over his shoulder too, always in the direction of the room they’d left behind.

When they reached the infirmary Elizabeth and Carson were waiting for them. “John?” asked Elizabeth, looking concerned when she got no response. Carson patted one of the beds and Rodney and Ford manoeuvred John onto it then released him. John instantly slid back off and made to head out of the room.

Ford caught him by the shoulders and tried pushing him back onto the bed, “Come on, Sir, you need to let the doc look you over.” He got no reaction.

Rodney got hold of his wrist again and John’s head slowly turned towards him. “Come on, Major, back on the bed so Carson can practice his voodoo on you.” He was aiming to lighten the mood, but didn’t manage to cover his worry completely.

Carson made an indignant noise at this, but refrained from commenting as John climbed back onto the bed and muttered, “Voodoo?”

Rodney opened his mouth to retort, but Carson quickly jumped in with, “I’m going to have to ask you all to leave while I examine him.”

There were reluctant nods and Elizabeth, Teyla and Ford went out to the waiting room. Rodney released John’s arm in order to follow, but quickly grabbed hold again when John moved to leave. “I think I’d better stay,” he said.

Carson nodded, “Aye, I think you’re right, lad.” While they waited, Elizabeth had Teyla and Aiden debrief her about the whole days exploration as well as the lead up to John’s current state.

*~*

Meanwhile, in the infirmary, Rodney went round the other side of the bed so as to keep out of Carson’s way while also keeping a hand on John. Carson began his exam by checking John’s vitals. As soon as he touched John his eyes focused a little more. “Carson?”

“Aye, lad, it’s nice to see you back with us,” Carson smiled.

John offered a small smile in return then swivelled his head to look at Rodney. “I knew the threat of Carson’s black magic would snap you out of it,” Rodney smiled.

John frowned and looked from one to the other again. “What’s going on?” he asked, sounding a bit more like himself.

Carson carried on with his examination while answering, “We’re not entirely sure yet, son. What do you remember?”

John considered for a moment then replied with, “Rodney wanted me to ask Atlantis about the room we were in.”

“Did he now?” Carson said, with a sharp look in Rodney’s direction.

“Hey! This is _so_ not my fault!” Rodney cried indignantly. Carson merely raised an eyebrow. “Well, okay, yes, I asked him to ask Atlantis. Carson, it’s amazing, and he kept it to himself all this time. He can actually speak with Atlantis…”

Rodney was on his way to complete scientific bliss, so Carson cut him off with a warning, “Rodney,” and Rodney snapped his jaw shut and sent a vaguely hurt look Carson’s way.

“Fine! So anyway, he closed his eyes to talk with Atlantis and must have sensed the…whatever…” he accompanied the word with a hand waving motion, “and gone off to find it. The nearer he got the more dazed he seemed and then he opened it before we could stop him, collapsed and we came back here.”

Carson considered this for a few moments and came to a decision. “We need to hook you up to the EEG for a bit, Major. I want to see what’s going on in your brain.”

John just nodded and lay back causing Rodney to snort softly. “You have to admit that he’s much easier to work with like this. I wish he was this biddable normally.”

Carson smiled at that. He turned away, about to fetch the EEG, but as soon as he let go of John his eyes glazed again. “Carson,” Rodney said.

Beckett turned back to see what had happened. “That’s odd,” he muttered.

Rodney suddenly snapped his fingers, startling John. “Sorry,” he said sheepishly. “I’ve just realised something, Carson. All the time before we got here, John only spoke or looked at me, and then he only responded to you and not Elizabeth. I think it’s the gene! Somehow, we’re shielding him from the…whatever,” more hand waving, “by having the gene.”

Carson looked thoughtful and reached out to touch John again. As before, his dazed look faded. Carson smiled at Rodney, “It looks like you’re right, lad. It is the gene helping the major.”

John nodded and looked between them. “Gene….shielding…”

Carson called one of his nurses to fetch the EEG rather than let go of John again. Once it had arrived and John was hooked up, Carson smiled apologetically and said, “I’m sorry, Major, but I’m going to have to put you in restraints. I need to see what’s going on without us shielding you so I can see how serious things are. It won’t be for long, I promise.” John grimaced, but nodded, and Carson and Rodney set to fixing his wrists into the restraints. John faded instantly when they both stepped back and started fighting against the restraints, trying to get back to the room below.

Rodney never took his eyes off of John, but Carson turned to the EEG readout, “Good grief! These brainwaves are off the charts!” He waited a minute more to be sure he’d got the baseline, then had Rodney touch John. The readings steadied out a small amount, and steadied even further when Carson also touched John. “They’re still above normal, but it’s a huge difference with the two of us shielding him. I don’t understand how it works, surely we should be affected if it goes for the gene carriers?” Carson frowned, puzzled.

Rodney looked thoughtful. “Maybe it’s the strength of his gene, or proximity- Major Sheppard’s the only one who went into the room and that’s when he collapsed. I just don’t understand why Atlantis would lead him to something that would harm him,” Rodney frowned.

John shook his head faintly, “Not gene, not Atlantis, Ancient.”

Rodney turned his frown in John’s direction, “Well, that’s certainly very useful! Ancient what? Could you be any more cryptic?”

John merely gazed at him and repeated, “Ancient!” a little more forcefully this time.

“Yes, yes, so you’ve said,” Rodney said, a little exasperated, but also worried that John wasn’t able to be clearer and give them a concrete lead.

John mustered a glare for him and tipped his head in Carson’s direction. “Ancient, Carson,” he said, hoping to get a better reaction from him.

“Okay, laddie. Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out. Rodney is a genius remember.”

Rodney threw him a small grin for that, preening a bit, but John merely snorted and offered, “You have to say that or he’ll cut you off,” grinning slightly himself.

“Aye, maybe,” Carson allowed. Rodney looked indignant and Carson guessed he was about to launch into a scathing tirade so he quickly jumped in with, “You should get some sleep now, son. I need to look over these readings before I do anything else. We’ll leave you on the EEG for now so I can monitor your brainwaves while you sleep.”

John didn’t look happy with this, but nodded and closed his eyes.

They stayed by his side until they were certain he was asleep, then stepped into Carson’s office, Carson pulling up John’s readings on his laptop. “I’m not happy putting him through this, but I need to know what’s happening in his brain while he sleeps, without us shielding him. He’s still restrained, so we know he won’t wander off at least.” Rodney nodded, not looking any happier than Carson. “I need to know what’s in that room, Rodney,” Carson continued.

Rodney nodded again and took a step towards the door, “I’ll get a team together,” he said.

Carson took hold of his arm saying, “You’ll do no such thing, Rodney!” Rodney scowled and opened his mouth, but Carson beat him to it, “What if what you said was true, about this affecting you if you step into the room? I couldn’t handle having the both of you like this. Never mind the practicality of me shielding the pair of you, I don’t think I could bear to see you look so vacant.”

Rodney’s face softened at this and he leaned in to give Carson a soft kiss on the lips. “Love you,” he said, then, “I’ll get Radek on it. I wasn’t really keen on the idea of leaving John anyway.”

“I know,” Carson smiled softly.

He was about to say more when one of his nurses poked her head round the door, “Doctor Beckett,” was all she said before disappearing, but her tone had indicated a problem, so Carson and Rodney went out after her.

They saw what the problem was immediately; John was no longer sleeping peacefully, but was twisting against the restraints, eyes open and staring at nothing. They rushed to his side, Carson glancing at the latest brain readings as they both took hold of a hand. He was alarmed by the erratic patterns John had experienced while asleep. John calmed straight away, panting quietly after his exertions. “It’s okay now, John,” Carson reassured him. John nodded and flicked his eyes towards Rodney, who smiled encouragingly.

They all looked up when the door opened to admit Radek. He walked over to them, frowning slightly when he saw the restraints round John’s wrists, “Rodney, Carson, Major,” he greeted.

Carson and Rodney nodded to him, waiting to see if John would respond- he hadn’t for Teyla, Ford or Elizabeth. “Hey, Radek,” he panted, still a little out of breath, but he managed a smile.

Carson and Rodney exchanged a look and then Carson released his hold on John, saying, “Say something to him, Radek.” Radek was disconcerted to see John fade when Carson let go, and he felt even more so when he got nothing from John after asking how he was feeling. He looked between Rodney and Carson for an explanation.

Carson went first, after taking hold of John again. “It’s something to do with our gene shielding him from whatever’s causing this. We weren’t sure he’d notice you at all, he didn’t respond to anyone other than Rodney until I touched him too. His brainwaves are very erratic when we both let go of him.”

Rodney continued with, “I need you to go down to the room we found and take as many scans and readings as you can think of. Take a team with you, but make sure none of them have the gene, we’re not sure if this is specific to the major, or a threat to any ATA carrier.”

Radek nodded and, as he took one last look at John, he turned and headed out of the infirmary. He wanted to lighten the mood a little so couldn’t resist teasing Rodney with, “I must make a note in my diary, today Rodney confessed to needing me.”

He smiled to himself, satisfied, when this caused Rodney to shout after his retreating form, “Don’t let it go to your head, Zippy!” Radek waved over his shoulder, never slowing or turning round.

As he left, Carson said, “Can you sit with him a minute, Rodney? I need to speak with Elizabeth and the others, let them know what’s going on.”

Rodney nodded, “Of course.”

Carson smiled encouragingly at John, the smile fading away along with John when Carson released him. He braced himself to explain the whole story one more time, frustrated by his lack of information. He hoped Radek and his team would find something quickly.

*~*

Radek gathered his team, taking great pleasure in telling Kavanagh he wasn’t needed- Radek was willing to admit that Kavanagh wasn’t completely inept, but he was an ass and Radek didn’t want to risk something of such importance as Major Sheppard’s health on Kavanagh’s dubious loyalties. He didn’t think Rodney would want him on it either.

They arrived at the room, Radek instructing a couple of the team to stay in the main lab- and it had to be a lab with the way the empty benches were arranged- and get readings, he left them setting up their equipment and stepped into the room Major Sheppard had opened. He looked around, “Oh my God,” he muttered in Czech, and stopped so abruptly that Simpson ran into the back of him.

“Is that…?” she started, eyes wide in awe.

The sight that had greeted them was a stasis chamber; similar to the one they had found the other Weir inside, but slightly larger. The shock came from what was inside the chamber; an Ascended Ancient, eerie as it hung there, frozen.

They stood that way for a few seconds, then Radek shook himself forcefully and activated his radio saying, “Doctor Weir, I think you should see this,” as he stepped over to the stasis control panel and hooked up his laptop ready for downloading. He didn’t even hear Elizabeth’s acknowledgement, so caught up was he. He started to download as much information as he could, reading as it went. What he saw caused him to widen his eyes again, but in horror this time. The data download was nearly finished when Elizabeth arrived. Radek glanced up at her and noticed for the first time that Simpson was busy taking readings.

Elizabeth’s reaction was a shocked gasp, followed by, “Radek?”

He nodded and glanced at the laptop, the download was almost complete. “If you can wait a few more minutes, Elizabeth, I need to show this data to Rodney, and I’d rather not have to explain this more than once.”

Elizabeth nodded, “Very well,” and accompanied Radek to the infirmary after he’d told the rest of his team to continue gathering as many readings as they could, but stressing that they were _not_ to do anything that might awaken the Ancient until Rodney and Carson had looked things over.

*~*

Carson re-entered the infirmary a few minutes after Radek left. He had given Elizabeth, Teyla and Ford the few facts he had and managed to shoo them away with instructions to eat and sleep…instructions he fully expected to go ignored. He stopped just inside the doorway and took in the scene before him. His heart ached at the sight of John looking so vacant and still, so unlike his usual self, and the ache deepened when he looked at the quiet concern on Rodney’s face. Rodney hadn’t even glanced his way when he came back in. They both cared more than they should for John, had been honest with each other even as they fell deeper in love, they’d even discussed bringing John into their relationship one late night, but had decided it was best not to mention it to John because he’d never shown more than friendship towards either of them. And besides, he was military.

Carson walked over and put a comforting hand on Rodney’s shoulder, causing him to look up and offer a small smile. John showed no reaction; obviously the two gene carriers had to touch him, rather than form this little chain, to get him to react. Carson looked pensive as he took hold of John’s arm and drew his attention to him. “Hey there, John,” he got a smile, “I’m afraid I’m going to have to sedate you for a while. I need to look into ways to help you and Rodney needs to get some sleep, he’s been up all day, as have you. You still need to rest too, and sleeping normally obviously didn’t work.” John looked concerned by this, but nodded after staring into first Carson’s and then Rodney’s eyes for a moment. “Good lad. I’ll be back in a minute,” he released John again and made to go and fetch the sedative.

Rodney stopped him with, “Are you sure this is a good idea, Carson?”

Carson shook his head, “Not really, Rodney, but like I told John, he needs rest and so do you and I need to find a way to help. I know you probably wont rest, but you’ll need to work on whatever Radek finds and you can’t do that and keep hold of John,” he answered. Rodney nodded, one side of his mouth turning down in displeasure. Carson fetched the sedative and administered it and once John’s eyes closed Rodney slowly released his hold and they both stood uncertainly, waiting for any sign of discomfort from John. He slept on peacefully though they waited the length of time it had taken John to become agitated when he slept before.

Looking relieved, they again went to Carson’s office. Rodney collapsed into the visitor chair, not worried about Carson seeing his tiredness. “Rodney, I want you to promise me you’ll get some rest,” Carson said.

Rodney smiled grimly, “I’ll sleep when I’ve got time, Carson, and don’t think I don’t know that you’ll be wearing yourself out for this too!” he raised his eyebrows in challenge, but Carson just looked sheepish, he knew he was caught. “That’s what I thought,” Rodney said, smugly, wanting to have the last word, even though, technically, he’d already had it.

They looked at each other, both still waiting for the nurse to come in again like before. She didn’t, but Rodney couldn’t bear it and stood abruptly, heading for the door with Carson close on his heels. John was still lying peacefully; Rodney’s shoulders slumped in relief. They turned to head back into the office, but John suddenly showed signs of being distressed.

Carson rushed to his side, astonished by the brainwave patterns increasing rapidly. Rodney appeared on John’s other side and reached out. “Wait,” Carson said, “I need to get the readings,” he added apologetically. He didn’t enjoy this anymore than Rodney did. John got steadily and quickly worse, frantically tugging against the restraints, Carson dreaded to think what a heart monitor would have shown him at this point.

“Carson!” Rodney demanded, wanting this to stop. Now. It was almost as if John was having a seizure.

Carson nodded, “Aye, this has gone on long enough,” and they both reached out to take hold. John beat them too it, however, his eyes snapping open so quickly that both Carson and Rodney snatched their hands back in shock. They quickly took hold of John as he struggled to get his breathing under control. The man looked terrified, eyes huge and round. Carson thought he looked like a frightened little boy and unconsciously reached out to stroke John’s hair from his forehead.

John calmed gradually, though he still remained scared looking, eyes darting between Rodney and Carson. He’d tried to curl into a ball too, as much as he could with his wrists immobilised. “Don’t do that again,” he begged, turning pleading puppy dog eyes on Carson, who was still stroking his hair.

Carson nodded, “I won’t, lad, I promise.”

Rodney had wrapped his fingers round John’s arm near his elbow, and was now rubbing his thumb in soothing little circles on the soft skin there. “You’re okay now, John,” he assured, causing John to look at him with a tiny smirk.

“You called me John,” he said and offered Rodney a dazzling smile…well, as dazzling as he could manage in his current state. It worked for Rodney anyway, his breath hitching a little, unable to look away. John turned the smile on Carson and got similar results. Carson waited until John had settled, then reluctantly let him go so as to bring up the brain monitor’s latest readings; he’d not liked the look of those spikes at all.

“God, I wish he wouldn’t smile at me like that,” Rodney lamented, “It’s making it seriously difficult for me to keep to our decision not to say anything to him!”

Carson was in full agreement, “I know, Rodney, but we can’t lose his friendship over this, neither of us could bear that.” Rodney just nodded sadly. He brightened suddenly, snapping his fingers as a plan came into his head.

“Maybe we should get him drunk, Carson, tell him it’s a celebration of his recovery from this.” Carson looked faintly horrified.

“You’re not suggesting we take advantage of him?” he said.

“What? No! Carson!” Rodney sputtered, looking horrified himself at the suggestion, and hurt that Carson could even suggest it. “I _meant_ we could get him drunk and then ask him about his thoughts on men and hope he didn’t remember in the morning so he couldn’t be upset with us.” He glared a little for good measure and Carson had the grace to look abashed.

Carson turned to examine the readings he’d brought up. “Bloody Hell!” he exclaimed, “I don’t like the look of these spikes, he’s gone off the chart again. And think of the adrenaline rush he must have had to snap out of that sedative!” He started stroking John’s hair again.

Elizabeth and Radek arrived then, Radek taking a moment to examine the tableau. He noted how protectively close both Carson and Rodney were to John, and also the way Carson stroked his hair and Rodney his elbow- this was no simple shielding touch. Radek knew how deeply Rodney and Carson loved each other, but he’d also seen the looks Rodney was giving the major with increasing frequency. He’d seen Carson do it a time or two as well, and was sure he’d caught John watching them both in the mess hall one time. He was obviously much more careful about being caught, but Radek knew what he’d seen. He was happy for them and began trying to think of ways to get them all together. Now, however, “Radek?” Carson asked as he looked up at him and Elizabeth.

Radek placed his laptop on a handy medical cart and positioned it so that Rodney and Carson could see the screen without leaving John. “Is incredible!” his arms semaphored his excitement, as did the odd word getting dropped, “Is stasis chamber with Ascended Ancient in it!”

This was met with two stunned looks and a “What!?” from Rodney.

John looked a little smug. “I told you that,” he pointed out, sounding gratifyingly lucid to Radek’s ears.

Rodney looked at John and replied acerbically, “Yes, yes you did, John, but simply saying ‘Ancient’ wasn’t really very helpful until we knew there was an actual Ancient now was it?”

Radek didn’t miss the use of ‘John’ and smiled to himself. Carson drew them back on topic with, “An Ancient? But what does this have to do with the major’s collapse? Surely if it’s in stasis it can’t be causing any problems?”

“These readings indicate a malfunction in the stasis chamber. I don’t know exactly how long the Ancient has been in stasis, but I was able to find limited data on the experiments being done in that lab. They were researching ascension, and this Ancient is part of the experiment. Plus we know that Atlantis has been empty for 10,000 years on top of that!”

“You said there was a malfunction, Radek?” Elizabeth asked.

“Yes. As far as I can determine, there has been some sort of merge between the Atlantis mainframe and the stasis chamber itself, which seems to have allowed the Ancient to access Atlantis’ computers in a limited fashion. I’m not quite sure how yet, but it stands to reason that an ascended being would be a very different thing than a human in stasis. The Ancient hasn’t been able to activate the reanimation programme though so is stuck in a half awake state.”

Elizabeth frowned thoughtfully, “So, has the Ancient somehow got hold of John and is trying to co-opt him into releasing it from the chamber?”

Radek shrugged, “That is certainly a very real possibility.” Even as he said this, John began shaking his head.

“No,” he said, “That’s not all it wants. It wants me.” Rodney snorted at the wording.

“What, even the _Ascended_ Ancients want in your pants now?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

John threw him a dark look and replied, “No, you ass,” fondly. He grew serious a moment later, “It wants a body, to live again.”

This shocked everyone, Rodney so much so that he threw both hands in the air, preparing for a rant. A chorus of sharp “Rodney!” stopped him cold and made him realise what he’d done. Sheepishly he took back his hold on John, “Sorry, sorry,” he muttered.

“John, how did you know what the Ancient wants?” asked Elizabeth.

John looked towards her slowly and said, “Atlantis.” She frowned and glanced to Carson when John didn’t say anything more. Rodney looked stricken, thinking he’d somehow made John go back to one-word answers.

“Adrenalin,” Carson said, confusing everyone. “I gave John a sedative not long before you both got here,” he told Elizabeth and Radek. “John was so scared by whatever was going on in his head that he frightened himself awake. The adrenalin rush would have been massive and I’m thinking that that’s what made him so aware just now. I’d guess that it’s worn off again now though.”

John looked at Carson, “Give me more adrenalin,” he said.

Carson shook his head at that. “Come on lad, you know better than that. I can’t go dosing you up with too much adrenalin, it’ll do your heart no good.” John tried the puppy dog eyes but got nowhere this time. Carson would not be swayed on medical matters thank you very much.

Rodney had an idea. Not giving himself time to think about what a huge mistake he could be making, he used his free hand to angle John’s head and kissed him long and hard, very pleased when John’s moment of shock gave way and he started to respond. Unfortunately, they needed to breath, so Rodney pulled back.

John still seemed glazed, but this seemed different than the Ancient induced daze. He looked at the others, Elizabeth looked shocked, Radek was smiling to himself, as if he’d just confirmed something and Carson looked…well, Carson looked blank actually. “What? Endorphins.” Rodney said, “like adrenalin, but his heart won’t explode. Even I’m not _that_ good!”

John blinked a few times and then said, “Yeah, okay, that works.” He smiled at Rodney cryptically and then turned to Elizabeth. “A proper reply to your question, Elizabeth: Atlantis can sense the Ancient too, she says he’s been slowly infiltrating her systems over the centuries since the malfunction. Nothing really noticeable unless you’re specifically looking. Atlantis has been able to do some limited infiltrating of her own and has found out that this Ancient didn’t want to ascend. He was forced into it as punishment for some crime; Atlantis doesn’t know what he did, she’s not been able to find that information. So now I’m here with my gene and he can sense me. He wants to have a body again and mine’s got the added bonus of a strong gene. He doesn’t want to stay here and will need a puddle jumper to leave.” John had said all this calmly enough, but they could all see the lines of strain around his eyes. Rodney’s kiss was obviously starting to wear off.

At this news, Carson turned to the EEG readings again. “Bloody Hell! These readings make a whole lot more sense now. They’re not the major’s brainwaves spiking, but two different patterns overlaying each other!”

“Atlantis says I have to go away until this is dealt with.” John looked sad at this.

“What about the other ATA carriers?” Elizabeth asked, “Won’t he simply move on to one of them if you are no longer available?”

John shook his head, “No, it’s my connection to Atlantis that the Ancient is sensing. Unless anyone else has been talking with her, they’ll be fine.” Radek looked at Carson and Rodney at this. They were the next two strongest gene carriers, if they didn’t speak to Atlantis, it was a fair bet that no one else would be. They both shook their heads at Radek’s silent inquiry.

“Will the mainland be far enough? You could stay with the Athosians.” Elizabeth asked. “And how will we get rid of the Ancient while you’re gone?”

John was definitely fading a bit now, “Atlantis will help as much as she can. She’s been trying to keep him away from me, so should have more attention to give to the problem once I’m gone, but Rodney will need to think of some way to get the Ancient’s consciousness out of her mainframe. If even a little is left, he’ll be able to interfere wherever he goes, unless he’s destroyed.”

Rodney looked alarmed, “Hold on a minute, I’m going with you. Radek will have to work it out.”

Elizabeth was about to protest when Carson chimed in with, “He’s right, Elizabeth. We don’t know whether the mainland is far enough, Rodney and I should go with Major Sheppard just in case.”

Elizabeth nodded. “Very well, you’ll take a puddle jumper to the mainland as soon as you’re ready. Radek, you’ll be in charge of finding some way of removing the Ancient from Atlantis’ systems and getting it out of the chamber and through the gate. I’d prefer not to destroy him if possible, it’s not his fault he was forced into this and then left alone for a small eternity. He deserves some freedom, just as long as he doesn’t try to use John to get it.”

There were nods all round, “I’ll have Lieutenant Ford gather your kit from your rooms and Teyla contact her people and let them know you’re coming.” Elizabeth left after giving John’s arm a brief squeeze, Radek and Rodney had a quick brainstorming session and Carson called a nurse to get a medical kit together.

*~*

A short while later, Carson and Rodney half supported John- whose legs were a little unsteady- as they made their way to the jumper bay, Nurse Johnson bringing Carson’s kit for him. Elizabeth, Ford and Teyla were there waiting. Johnson stowed Carson’s kit in jumper one then left with a quick hand on his arm and a smiled “Good luck.”

Ford said, “I wasn’t sure how long you’d be gone so I got a few changes of clothes, as well as your toiletry kits. I also picked up your book, sir; your laptop, Rodney, which Dr. Z took a moment to stick a couple of extra projects on. I wasn’t sure what you wanted, Doc, so I picked up your laptop and the two books you had by your bed. Oh and, I got a few DVDs too.”

“Thanks, Aiden, lad, that should keep us going,” Carson said.

“I have spoken with Halling and he has set aside a tent for the three of you,” Teyla told them, Rodney nodding in thanks. He was about to speak when John suddenly sucked in a breath and straightened slightly, causing everyone’s head’s to swing in his direction.

“We need to go now, he knows we’re leaving and is stepping up his efforts.” This was said through gritted teeth and John’s eyes were narrowed in pain.

Carson and Rodney quickly led John into the jumper at this, Elizabeth shouting a quick, “Good luck, be safe,” as they went.

John automatically headed for the pilot’s seat only to be stopped short by Rodney. “Where do you think you’re going?” he asked with raised eyebrows, “You’re hardly in a fit state to fly us to the mainland, Major. I’m afraid you’ll have to put up with me doing it.” He tried not to look as concerned as he felt, not being the best pilot ever. But it was better than having Carson do it, he reminded himself.

“Rodney’s right, son,” Carson added, ignoring Rodney’s muttered ‘of course’, “And apart from that, we have no idea what accessing the mental component of the jumper will do to you. We don’t actually know what it will do to Rodney either, “ he added worriedly. Rodney paled slightly at this, but there was no other way of getting off Atlantis.

Carson looked to John again with that apologetic look John was seeing so much of lately. “I’m sorry, lad, but we’re going to have to let go. Rodney obviously needs both hands to fly and I need to see how you react the further we get from Atlantis, to be sure we’re far enough away.”

John grimaced, but nodded, and they got him strapped into the seat. His eyes were still narrowed in pain, but he managed, “Straight line, Rodney!” and a tiny smirk. Rodney scowled at him.

As soon as he was strapped in, Rodney began readying the jumper. Carson gave his arm one last squeeze, “You’ll be fine, John,” and let go.

John’s reaction was to immediately undo the straps from around his shoulders and start for the cockpit again, his speed catching Carson off guard. “Rodney!” Carson shouted. He made a grab for John but only caught his clothing, not enough to counteract the Ancient’s hold. John pushed him forcefully away, stunning him briefly as he hit the side of the jumper hard, and stepped towards Rodney who had turned at Carson’s shout.

The look in John’s eyes was quite mad and Rodney was momentarily shocked. That gave John the second he needed to grab hold of Rodney’s jacket front and start hauling him from the seat. “You won’t stop me now,” he said, “This one is strong, but ultimately mine, and…” Whatever he’d been going to say was cut off as Rodney grabbed hold of his wrist and Carson appeared behind him, placing one hand on his other wrist and one on the back of his neck. John’s eyes closed and he sagged back against Carson, who moved the hand on John’s neck to his waist as support. Carson could feel him trembling.

They half carried John back to his seat and strapped him in again, Carson keeping tight hold as he said, “We need to leave now!” Rodney didn’t even bother to reply, simply returning to the pilot’s seat and lifting the jumper off the floor and through the ‘sun roof’, setting course for the mainland.

Carson’s attention kept shifting between the other two men. “How do you feel, Rodney?” he asked worriedly.

“I’m fine, Carson, no sign of any mad Ancient trying to get into my brain.” He sounded very relieved by this. “How’s John doing?”

Carson looked to John again, “It’s difficult to say at the moment, but he does seem to be showing a slight improvement the further away we get. I’m going to try letting go again, we really do need to see his unshielded reactions.” Suiting actions to words, Carson let his hands fall away from John, but stayed ready to grab hold again if needed. John did start struggling against the harness again, but nowhere near as frantically as the last time.

By the time they reached the Athosian settlement, John was a lot more alert and had stopped fighting the straps of is seat. Rodney landed the ship and went back to where Carson and John were sitting. He noticed the change in John, “John?” he asked. John turned towards him and smiled a little but looked a bit blank.

“He seems to be at about the same level of awareness as he was with only one of us touching him, so this has definitely helped,” Carson remarked, pleased. Rodney smiled and went back into the cockpit to contact Atlantis with a situation report.

Carson, meanwhile, gathered all their stuff by the ramp so that it could be removed quickly. When both men had finished they unstrapped John and took hold, pulling him up. John reacted as before, becoming much more aware once he had the two men shielding him. This time though, he was almost back to his normal self. “How do you feel, Major?” Rodney asked, “can you still feel the Ancient?”

John nodded, “Yeah, I can still feel him, but he seems really distant, like when I first sensed him, before I opened the door. Nothing like before. I thought that was it for me. I could feel him taking over; it was like being locked in a cell in my own head, I knew what was happening but I was completely helpless. It was horrible,” he shivered, “Thanks for stopping him.” He looked at Carson, “Sorry if I hurt you, Doc.”

Carson shook his head, “No, lad, I’m fine. I was just a little dazed. And it wasn’t your fault anyway, we let you go. You’re okay now though, he shouldn’t be able to get such a hold on you from this distance, not if my observations on the flight over are anything to go by.” John grinned hugely at them, happy to feel almost like himself again. He didn’t notice the slight hitching of breath from both Carson and Rodney, distracted by the arrival of Halling and Jinto.

“Welcome, Doctor Beckett, Doctor McKay, Major Sheppard,” Halling greeted them. “Teyla tells me you are unwell, Major?”

John nodded, “Yes, but I’m feeling much better just being here, Halling. Hey Jinto,” he added, smiling at the boy.

Jinto grinned back, “Major Sheppard.”

Halling was pleased that being in the village was helping Major Sheppard’s illness, but he didn’t miss the supporting hands from both doctors. “Come,” he started, “I will show you to your dwelling. I thought it best to put you on the edge of the village, to reduce the noise and number of visitors. Is this acceptable to you?”

Carson nodded at this, pleased that Halling had thought of it rather than having to be asked to keep people away. He didn’t think John would enjoy too many people seeing him ‘zoned out’, and Carson and Rodney couldn’t keep in touch with him every second of the day (much as they’d like to). “Aye, lad, that’s ideal, thank you,” he replied to Halling. Halling nodded in turn and showed them into one of the larger tents. It had three sleeping areas, piled with blankets, and a small common area with a low table.

“Thank you, Halling,” Rodney said, “this will do nicely.” Halling smiled and left them to set up, herding Jinto along in front of him, the boy disappointed not to have been able to spend more time with John.

The three men stood for a few moments, each trying to decide what to do next. It was only 10pm, but it felt much later after the excitement of the last few hours. Carson was first to speak, “Right, lads, I think a bit of sleep is in order. We’ve all been up for a good while and you definitely need to rest, John.”

John shook his head, “I’m fine, Carson, I don’t want to sleep just yet.” Carson raised an eyebrow at that.

“And how much of that is you not being tired, and how much is you worrying about the Ancient worming his way in, hmm?”

“Yeah, okay, mostly worry. But you have to agree it’s valid after the great success of my last two brushes with unconsciousness,” John was quick to point out. There was no way he wanted another chance to experience the Ancient in control. He gave a slight shiver, which neither Rodney nor Carson missed.

Rodney reassured John, in his own special way, “Don’t be an idiot, Major. The Ancient won’t be able to get such a hold on you at this distance. We’ve already established this. And anyway, both your other attempts at sleep were taken without either of us present.”

Carson shook his head at Rodney’s unique style of comfort, but John seemed to actually feel better, surprisingly. “Right,” he said decisively, “You’re right. I can’t go without sleep indefinitely without making myself ill and maybe giving the Ancient a better foothold.”

Rodney nodded at this, “I _knew_ your supposedly Mensa level brain had to be capable of _some_ logic!”

“Gee, thanks, Rodney, for that shining vote of confidence,” John replied sarcastically. They both turned to look at Carson when he chuckled softly, John raising an eyebrow and Rodney demanding, “What?”.

Still smiling, Carson replied, “You’re bickering, you must be feeling better, John.” John smiled sheepishly and nodded at that. Rodney managed to look both pleased and affronted simultaneously, as only he could. “Right, now that we’ve got that sorted out, shall we get some actual sleep?” he said.

Carson nodded. “Come and sit down over here, John, while Rodney and I move these beds together.” John looked faintly alarmed by this statement, but seeing as how Carson and Rodney let him go after sitting him down, there was very little he could say on the matter.

Carson and Rodney gathered the various piles of pillows and blankets and moved them all into one big heap. “How are we going to work this, Carson?” Rodney asked.

Carson frowned in thought for a few moments, then, “Well, as torturous as it’s going to be, I think we need to be down to boxers,” at Rodney’s pained look he clarified, “We need to make sure that there’s plenty of contact points available if we shift in our sleep. It wouldn’t do to lose hold of John and give the Ancient an opening.”

Rodney grimaced. “Are you trying to torture me to death? You do realise it could all be horribly embarrassing in the morning when certain parts wake up before we do?”

“Aye, but there’s nothing else for it, Rodney. He needs to be able to get a proper rest, and this is the only way I can think of for that to happen.” That said, Carson began stripping out of his clothes, Rodney following suit a few moments later. They both leaned in for a quick kiss, each trying not to dwell on their almost naked lover. These were not thoughts conducive to resting.

They moved to John and started helping him out of his clothes, John flashing in and out of awareness as fingers brushed skin when his t-shirt was pulled off and his button and fly were undone. Carson and Rodney resolutely didn’t look at each other, trying desperately not to think about how much they were enjoying stripping John, and also trying not to wish that it was under different circumstances.

Once John was down to his boxers, they both took hold of a wrist, causing John to spring back to awareness. He darted his gaze between them, taking in their state of undress and then glanced down his own body to see he was similarly attired…or not, as the case may be. “Umm, what’s going on, guys?”

Carson explained what he and Rodney had already discussed and John reluctantly agreed that this was the best way to be assured of sleep, only he really wasn’t sure he could lie between the two men he so desperately wanted and sleep. The point was moot; there was no other choice.

Carson gently tugged on the wrist he held and led John to the pile of blankets. Sinking down on one edge, he pulled John down too and, desperately trying to keep his touch professional, arranged him so that John lay with his back pressed to Carson’s chest. With John lying down, Rodney had had to kneel on the other side of the bed in order to keep hold of John’s other wrist. He took a moment to admire how well John and Carson fit together, then ruthlessly squashed the thought and lay down. He turned his back to John, hoping that would help keep the desire at bay.

They lay for a while, Carson becoming increasingly aware that John was very much not relaxing. He was a little sad that John was so uncomfortable, but he supposed it proved that he and Rodney had made the right choice in not inviting John to join them. Still, “What’s the matter, John? We’ve told you that the Ancient won’t be able to harm you here.” He propped his head on his hand so that he could look over John’s shoulder.

“I know,” John said, “but, I can’t help worrying about it,” he added, desperate to avoid anything close to the real reason. Rodney had turned over when Carson spoke. As usual he was quick to jump to conclusions.

“Does it really bother you so much?” he asked. “You never seemed to mind that Carson and I were gay before, or does it only become a problem when the clothes come off?” He had aimed for scathing, but had a horrible feeling he’d come off more hurt than anything else.

John’s eyes widened at the accusation, and, if possible, he seemed to tense up even more. “No! God, Rodney, I would never…no…that’s not it at all.”

Carson was very glad to hear that Rodney’s conclusion was wrong. “So what’s the problem, lad?” he asked, hoping to get to the bottom of things. John seemed to wrestle with himself, Rodney witnessing the inner struggle played out in those hazel eyes.

Eventually, John reached a decision. “It’s just that,” he began, haltingly. “It’s just that…I’m right where I want to be and I’m trying really hard not to get used to it because it’s only until Radek comes up with a solution, and then I’ll be alone again.” His words came faster and faster as he confessed. “I’m sorry,” he said finally, somewhat muffled by the pillow he’d pressed his face into. Consequently he missed the triumphant gleam in Carson and Rodney’s eyes, and the grins they shared. They both looked at John who was the picture of misery just then.

“John,” Rodney said softly, waiting until John moved his head enough for an eye to peer out of the pillow at him. “There’s no need to be sorry,” he said.

John turned to look at him fully, “But…” Rodney cut him off by pressing a finger to John’s lips.

“You don’t need to be sorry, because we feel the same way,” he said.

John looked stunned, eyes wide. He twisted his head to stare up at Carson, who nodded and smiled gently, then twisted back to stare at Rodney again. “You do?” he said when he finally found his voice. Rodney proved it by leaning forward and kissing him. He started gently but soon asked John for more by running his tongue along John’s lips until he opened his mouth. Rodney pressed his tongue into John’s mouth and revelled in the taste of pure John. John responded eagerly.

Before things could get too heated, Carson cleared his throat. “Much as I’m enjoying the show, lads, I think I should get a go. You’ve already kissed him once today, Rodney.” He convinced himself that he didn’t sound at all petulant.

Rodney broke the kiss, panting slightly and John twisted his head round to face Carson again. Carson leant down and got his own taste of John Sheppard. Somebody moaned. Carson wasn’t sure who, but suspected it had been Rodney when he said, “God that’s hot!”

The need to breathe eventually ended the kiss and Carson was gratified to note that John was completely relaxed against him now. He smiled gently when he noticed that John’s eyes were half closed. Suspecting that desire only played a small part he said, “Sleep, John,” and settled back down behind him, pulling him close with an arm round John’s chest this time and worming a leg between John’s. John reached a hand up and gently caressed on of Rodney’s cheekbones, then he gently but pointedly tugged on Rodney’s shoulder. Rodney took the hint and lay down, facing John. He gave a lop-sided grin and leant in to kiss the tip of John’s nose, then he shuffled down a little way so that he could tuck his head into John’s chest, his head resting under John’s chin. This also meant he trapped Carson’s hand between his and John’s bodies. He flung his arm over John’s waist so that his hand lay on Carson’s hip. John sighed contentedly and drifted off, Carson and Rodney listening as his breathing evened out in sleep, following him down shortly after.

If anyone had been there to witness the three men, they would have seen three identical smiles playing on their faces.

*~*

Nodding at Aiden and Teyla, who looked as worried as she felt, Elizabeth forced herself back into her office. She desperately wanted to go to the labs to see what Radek and his team had come up with, but she knew it was too soon, and her hovering would only distract the scientists. She resolved to do some paperwork, even going so far as to switch on her laptop…she didn’t realize she’d been staring at her desktop screen for the last twenty five minutes until Peter commed to tell her that Rodney was waiting to speak with her. “Thanks, put him through,” she said, then, “Rodney?”

 _“Elizabeth.”_

“I take it you’ve arrived safely?”

 _“We’ve_ arrived _safely, but, God, Elizabeth, I thought we’d lost him for a minute there. The Ancient got hold of him…you should have seen his eyes. It’s quite mad you know!”_ He proceeded to detail the events before take off, finishing with, _“Radek needs to come up with a solution quickly. I don’t think any of us could stand another episode.”_

Elizabeth wasn’t sure, but she thought she could hear an undercurrent to Rodney’s voice that seemed to hold more worry and fear than for just a friend. She decided she could ponder that further some other time. “I’ll tell him to keep at it, although that’s probably pretty redundant of me. I hope to contact you with some good news soon. Weir out.”

As soon as Rodney had signed off, Elizabeth headed down to the labs. Radek looked up at her arrival and disengaged himself from the huddle of scientists to speak with her. “They are on the mainland, yes? How is Major Sheppard?” Elizabeth relayed what Rodney had told her, causing Radek to scowl. “You are certain you wish the Ancient to be released? What is to say it will not try to get hold of somebody else?”

“Well, John seemed to think it was relying on his link to Atlantis. No one else has that, so they should be safe. Do I take it you’ve come up with something?”

Radek scowled again, irritated that the idea to use force fields to herd the Ancient to the gateroom had been Kavanagh’s. He outlined the plan adding, “Now we just need to decide where to send it. I suggest Proculus; Rodney would be amused.”

Elizabeth smiled at that. “I don’t suppose it really matters where we send it. As long as it’s no longer on Atlantis it’s influence over John will be gone and I assume the Ancient will go to wherever Ascended Ancients go.” She paused a moment, gathering her thoughts. “Okay. How long will you need to set this up?”

Radek thought for a moment. “It all depends on how easily we can route power to the fields without losing essential operations elsewhere…but I guess no more than five or six hours.”

“Then I’ll leave you to get started,” Elizabeth said. She turned and left, heading back for another go at that paperwork.

Radek returned to his group of scientists and informed them that the plan was going ahead and now they just needed to figure out how to make it work. He ignored Kavanagh’s smug look, but it was difficult.

Just less than five and a half hours later Radek and his team had gotten all the shields in place and, with a nod from Elizabeth, Radek started the sequence to bring the Ancient out of stasis.

*~*

Carson woke, sometime in the wee small hours of the morning. It took him a second to figure out what had disturbed him, but he quickly noticed that John was twitching and whimpering in his arms. He glanced across at Rodney to find him already awake staring bleakly at John. “I seriously hope he’s just having a nightmare,” Rodney whispered, not looking at all convinced that that was what John was experiencing.

He reached his hand forward and laid it on the side of John’s face, thumb caressing his cheekbone, much as John had done to him earlier. “John?” he said gently, repeating it until John’s eyes cracked open. “Are you okay, John?” he asked, when it seemed that he was awake enough to answer.

In a move so quick they barely registered it, John had pushed Rodney’s shoulder so that Rodney ended up on his back and straddled him, eyes glinting madly. “Not John,” he crowed, triumphantly, still pressing Rodney down somewhat painfully. Before not-John could do anything else, Carson appeared behind him, wrapping both arms tightly round John’s chest, pinning his arms to his sides.

Carson hauled John backwards, off of Rodney and tight against his own chest. He put his lips to John’s ear and murmured, “Fight him, John. Come back to us.”

Rodney had, by this time, sat up and moved to kneel in front of John and Carson. He placed one hand over John’s heart and cupped John’s face again with the other. He stared into John’s eyes, marvelling inanely that he could tell this wasn’t John even though nothing in his appearance had changed, just by some indefinable _something_ missing from John’s gaze as he held it, refusing to let John turn his head or look away. As a result, he saw exactly when John snapped back into control; his knowledge confirmed when John squirmed out of Carson’s grip and retreated to the edge of the pile of blankets, drawing his knees up to his chest and resting his head on them, sucking in huge gasps of air. He refused to look at either Rodney or Carson.

They both moved slowly closer to John, seeing that he was shaking. Reaching a tentative hand to John’s shoulder, Carson said, “John?” John didn’t look up, but he didn’t pull away either. Taking this as a good sign, Carson once again moved behind John and pulled him tightly against his chest, worming his arms between John’s chest and drawn up knees and forcing him to uncurl slightly. In the back of Carson’s mind, he noticed this pattern they already seemed to have of Carson behind and Rodney in front with John in the middle. It had been instantly _right_ and he saw no reason to disturb that right now. And true to form, Rodney positioned himself by John’s knees, resting his hands on them. John still hadn’t looked up and Rodney let him have that space rather than trying to get eye contact again. Carson felt John’s gasping and shaking start to subside and questioned, “John, love?”

At the word ‘love’ John’s head snapped up to meet Carson’s look, wide eyed. Carson realised that it would take a little time for John to believe they actually loved him and weren’t just saying it to ease the current situation. “They let him out, Carson. The Ancient’s out of stasis.” John’s voice wasn’t much more than a whisper and he stared at Carson like a wounded puppy would, unable to believe that Elizabeth and Radek had freed the entity that was trying so hard to steal John’s body from him.

Rodney evidently felt similar disbelief if his strangled _“What?”_ was anything to go by. He squeezed John’s knees reassuringly, then scrambled away to dig out his radio from their heap of clothing. “Atlantis, this is McKay,” he said.

 _“Go ahead, Rodney,”_ Peter Grodin’s voice issued from his earpiece.

“Patch me through to Radek or Elizabeth. I want to know what the hell they think they’re doing letting the Ancient out of stasis!” Rodney ranted.

 _“You know about that?”_ Peter sounded surprised.

“Evidently!” Rodney replied, managing to fit whole sentences worth of scorn into that single word.

Peter, perhaps realising how pointless his last question had been, and unwilling to deal with McKay at this hour of the morning simply said, _“I’m patching you through now.”_

 _“Rodney?”_ came Elizabeth’s voice.

“Elizabeth, can you please explain to me why you’ve let the Ancient out of stasis? John’s just had another attack. It would have been nice to at least get a warning!” Rodney was really hitting his angry stride now.

 _“Oh God, we thought he was safe there, I didn’t…Is he okay?”_

“He’s pretty shaken, as are Carson and myself, but he’s himself, so that’s a plus. Can you please tell me what’s going on now?” Rodney’s rant had been deflated by the contrite tones of Elizabeth’s voice, but he was still angry and kept his own voice sharp.

 _“Of course, Rodney. Radek and your team worked out a way to use force fields to direct the Ancient to the gateroom. We’ll open the gate and send it through; if John was right about it needing his connection with Atlantis, that should stop it’s influence on him. Radek’s just released the Ancient and we hope it won’t take too long to reach the gateroom,“_ Elizabeth explained.

“Okay, well, thanks for _finally_ filling us in on the plan. Speak to you soon,” and Rodney cut the connection before Elizabeth could deliver her own farewell.

While Rodney had been speaking to Elizabeth, Carson had continued speaking in John’s ear. Not really saying anything, just making soothing nonsense noises and hoping his accent would calm John as it did Rodney when he woke from a nightmare. He was pleased when he felt John start to relax against him, but his knees were starting to ache from kneeling so long, so he shifted himself and John until they were lying down again. Rodney joined them after finishing his conversation- or rant- with Elizabeth.

John had tensed slightly when Carson laid them down and now he pleaded, “Don’t make me sleep again. Please.”

Rodney leaned in and brushed John’s lips feather-lightly with his own, smiling softly. “No, we won’t make you sleep,” he promised, then outlined Radek’s plan to get rid of the Ancient. “So, I definitely think it’s best to stay awake until they’ve got the gate shut down behind it,” he concluded. “We’ll talk instead,” he decided.

“About what?” John asked tentatively.

Rodney pretended to give it some thought, pulling an exaggerated ‘hmmm’ face and making John smirk very slightly. “Oh, I know,” Rodney said cheerfully, as if he’d really just had an idea pop into his head. “We’ll start with why you didn’t tell us how you felt, John.”

John had known this topic would come up, he’d just hoped it wouldn’t be so soon. “Oh, yes, ‘cause that would have gone down so well. ‘Hey, Carson, Rodney, I just thought you should know that I’m attracted to you both,” he went for sarcasm, hoping to deflect the conversation, but unfortunately his audience was well versed in that trick. All he got was four raised eyebrows over four incredulous blue eyes. He had the grace to look sheepish. “So, _apparently_ that would have worked, but how was I supposed to know that at the time?”

“What did you think we’d do if you’d told us, lad?” Carson asked.

“I don’t really know, but I didn’t think it could be anything good. I imagined ending up with one of you and the other being hurt, or worse yet, losing both of you as friends and ending up with nothing.” John avoided eye contact with either of them, then suddenly remembered, “Hey, hang on a minute, you never said anything to me either. How come?”

“Well, we were worried that we’d lose your friendship, too,” Carson confessed.

“And, hello? US military, don’t ask don’t tell, court martial, any of this sounding familiar?” Rodney added in a strident tone.

John grinned at that. “And just who is going to court martial me, Rodney? In case it slipped your notice, I’m in charge. I’m hardly likely to arrest myself. You know, for a supposed genius, you can be a little dense,” he sniped gently.

Rodney assumed a mock affronted face, “Yes, well, you claim to be a Mensa qualified brain but it doesn’t stop you from being moronic most of the time.”

“Now, children, play nicely,” Carson chuckled.

Rodney pretended to glare at Carson, “Right, fine, next topic. Why didn’t you tell us about your connection with Atlantis, and what does it feel like?”

“Hey, how come you get to pick all the topics?” John deflected. Again unsuccessfully.

“Don’t change the subject,” Rodney snapped.

“Aye, I’m interested to hear the answer to this myself,” Carson added.

“Oh God, I knew it. You’re going to turn me into an experiment!” John put on an air of resigned defeat but spoiled it by smirking.

“Spill,” was Rodney’s succinct response.

“Fine. I didn’t tell you for several reasons; firstly it was kinda scary and I sort of hoped it would go away if I didn’t think about it,” he held up his hand to forestall the scoffing he could see building in Rodney’s face, “I know, I know, but it didn’t stop me hoping. And I resented the fact that I was only brought along to Atlantis because of my gene. I didn’t want to be dragged all over the city to talk to her about trivial discoveries,” he looked at Rodney, “or spend even more time being poked and prodded and examined,” his gaze flicked to Carson. “And it’s not like I don’t have my own work to do. Stuff I inherited when I got command…a command I was never meant to have. I was suddenly in charge and it was all a bit overwhelming, you know? I couldn’t deal with the endless demands I knew I’d get from all quarters, and then I sort of started to feel a bit selfish. They made me come for my gene and now I’d got Atlantis talking to me. She was just for me and I decided it would serve them right if I kept her a secret.” He looked a little contrite as he made that admission.

Rodney looked like he was about to say something, but Carson beat him to it, “What do you mean by ‘they made me come’, the Atlantis expedition was voluntary.”

John gave a humourless little laugh at that. “Yeah, it was voluntary, unless you were some gene-freak pilot that the Air Force didn’t want but couldn’t get rid of. Oh, they didn’t _order_ me to come, but O’Neill made it pretty clear that I’d be out on my ear if I didn’t, and flying’s all I had- I couldn’t give that up. But even with that little ultimatum, I _still_ ended up with a coin toss as the deciding factor, and here I am.”

Carson and Rodney both looked faintly horrified by this discovery, having been content in the knowledge that everyone was happy to step through the gate. “But you never gave any indication of being anything other than pleased to be here,” Rodney said.

“Being in a war teaches you to shut your feelings away,” he said, going on quickly with, “oh, don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate it here, it’s actually pretty great most of the time,” when he saw the matching stricken looks. He finished with, “It just would have been nice to _truly_ have the choice, you know?”

Carson and Rodney were silent for a moment, absorbing this new and unhappy information. Carson looked at John again and asked, “Is that why you push Elizabeth so hard sometimes? Go against her orders?”

John was briefly surprised by Carson’s perceptiveness, but realised he really shouldn’t be. “Yes. I just, sometimes, want her to acknowledge that I’m a person. Oh, I know that’s a bit unfair to her, but she’s the one who started all this. She asked me to come and I said no- why would I want to swan off to some far off galaxy while I was still trying to assimilate the fact that aliens existed and I was some sort of genetic throwback? So, I said no, and she went over my head. It made me feel like a ‘thing’, something I was pretty used to from the brass, but not from complete strangers, especially not civilian ones. So now, I push her, try to prove that I have merit as a man, as a military commander, that I’m more than the genetic light switch. I know I go too far sometimes, but I just can’t stop myself.”

Silence again, they were learning a lot about their new lover tonight and it was uncomfortable information. Eventually Carson said, “Well, if it helps at all, Rodney and I see _you_ , John Sheppard. And I’m pretty sure that anyone who _did_ see you as the ‘genetic light switch’, stopped as soon as you saved all our arses a few times.” Rodney nodded in a ‘what he said’ manner, being uncomfortable at having to actually _say_ stuff like that.

John, for his part, smiled and kissed them both sweetly. He felt a lot better having gotten that burden off his chest at last. He’d been reluctant to see Kate Heightmeyer, but it had been a weight on his shoulders. It was a relief to have it gone, to have someone else understand him, just a little.

They fell into a companionable silence until Rodney suddenly remembered, “Hey, you never answered my other question. What does Atlantis feel like?”

“God! You never ask the easy questions do you, Rodney?” John lamented.

“When have I ever?”

“True. Okay, it’s…um…it’s like I’ve lived my whole life without her and now it would feel _wrong_ without her. It’s something that just _is_ , you know?”

“No, actually, I don’t know. That’s why I asked,” was Rodney’s retort.

John let out a short breath through his teeth and frowned, struggling to think of a better way to describe his connection with Atlantis. Carson caught his frustration and said, “Hush, Rodney, the lad’s trying.”

“Thank you, Carson,” John said and leaned up to kiss him quickly.

“Hey, don’t I get one of those,” Rodney asked when John made no move towards him.

“No, you were mean to me,” John replied, then stuck his tongue out for good measure.

“Oh yes, that’s very mature,” Rodney scowled. John smiled sweetly at him and Carson chuckled to himself, amused by their bickering. “Well?” Rodney asked.

“It’s just really difficult to explain,” John stalled.

“Try.”

“Right. Okay. Well, she doesn’t _talk_ to me as such; it’s more like…It’s like a low hum in the back of my mind. Like those noises that you almost feel rather than hear?” he got two nods, “And it started as soon as I stepped through the gate that first time, like she was welcoming me home. But it was a little creepy too, ‘cause she’s a little clingy after being lonely for ten millennia. I think she sees me as kind of an extension of herself…Part of her programming, but autonomous- like Rommie in the Andromeda tv series. She tells me stuff when I need to know it, even if I don’t actually know that I need to know it.”

“What sort of stuff?” Carson wanted to know.

“Well, take the puddle jumper for instance. I’m a good enough pilot that I can say it without it being bragging, but I’m also self aware enough to realise that there’s no way I could have learnt how to fly that jumper that quickly without Atlantis …I guess, downloading…the knowledge. And have you never wondered why I turn up just when you, or one of your minions, is about to blow something up?”

Rodney thought for a second. “Wait. You mean Atlantis tells tale on us?” He was mildly affronted by this information.

“Well, she only wants to make sure you don’t hurt yourself, or her, so I think it’s acceptable, don’t you?” John pointed out. Carson was pleased that John was being so open about this. He was beginning to realise that John had as many defences as, maybe even more than, Rodney, and he was happy to be trusted with this lowering of walls.

“What else?” Rodney demanded.

“Well, obviously, she turns stuff on for me and reveals things like rooms or control panels; sometimes before I even know I’m looking for them. And, something that’s pretty cool, she tells me where everyone is. If I think of a particular person, she tells me where they are, and I can get into a transporter and ask to be taken to someone and she takes me to the nearest transporter rather than having to pick a level destination.”

Carson had a thought, “What’s the range on this connection? Can you still feel her here, or off world?”

John nodded, “Yeah, I can feel her here. Off world’s a bit different. I have an awareness of her, but it’s not strong enough for us to actually communicate. It’s stronger if we go through the gate in a jumper because she’s part of the jumper’s programming; it acts like a relay station. But it’s still not generally enough to speak with her.”

“I’m curious as to why Atlantis let you near the Ancient if she’s so desperate to keep your company,” Rodney said.

“She didn’t,” John replied, continuing with, “Think of the Ancient like a virus, it’s managed to worm it’s way partially into Atlantis’ mainframe and can take limited actions which she either doesn’t detect or can’t stop. The Ancient’s known about me since I arrived and has been building enough control and waiting for me to be in the vicinity so that it could get me there by sounding like Atlantis.”

There was a short silence while Carson and Rodney digested this information and John marvelled at how quiet Rodney had been, obviously too fascinated by what John was telling him to think of anything to say. John saw the moment that Rodney decided to start talking again and pre-empted him with, “I’m tired of talking, can we have sex now?”

“Fuck, John!” Rodney exclaimed, completely derailed from his previous train of thought. Carson, meanwhile, sucked in a sharp breath and the arm he had wrapped around John tightened its grip.

“Yes, exactly!” John said. Amused at the reactions he’d caused. He shoved his hips back into Carson, just in case he’d not made himself clear already, watching Rodney’s eyes quickly darken.

There was a moment of stillness and then everyone exploded into frantic movement. Carson wedged the arm he’d been propping himself up on under John so he could use it to hold him close and free his other hand for touching. He started touching whatever skin he could reach, both John’s and Rodney’s, and also started dropping light kisses to the back of John’s neck and on his shoulders. John used his free arm to pull Rodney into him by the back of the neck, waiting until Rodney had flung his arm over John, running his hand along John’s side and Carson’s, before releasing that hold to caress Rodney’s back. Rodney’s mouth met John’s and they kissed urgently, all teeth and tongues. The sight drew a moan from Carson.

They were happy to continue exploring each other like this for a few minutes, but gradually, they became more and more aware of their boxers being in the way, and there was a quick moment taken to help each other squirm free of the annoying bits of cloth. Things got a bit more urgent after that, with hands exploring erections, nobody quite sure whose hand was where. Carson’s hand eventually dragged over John’s hip and down to the back of his knee, gripping there and pushing John’s leg forward to rest over Rodney’s hip. The hand trailed back along John’s thigh and then began teasing John’s entrance lightly. John made a desperate sound, which met with the approval of both Rodney and Carson. Suddenly though, Carson’s lust-addled brain remembered something. “Dammit, no lube!” he all but growled in frustration.

John said, “I don’t care,” but Rodney pulled away from him. “Hey, where are you going?” John asked plaintively.

“To see what Ford packed in our various toiletries,” he replied, snatching up the various packs and rummaging through them. He made a wordless noise of triumph as he discovered some hand lotion, grinning hugely as he came back to the bed. He handed the lotion to Carson and rearranged himself so that he was once again under John’s leg, wriggling until their groins were pressed together, drawing a hiss from himself and John. His hands never stopped moving, flitting over John and Carson, twisting and rubbing over nipples. He kissed John long and hard, then moved onto licking, nipping and sucking at his neck and collarbone.

Carson lubed his fingers and then went back to teasing John, pushing a finger inside. John moaned again, but he was tight enough that Carson asked, “You have done this before, John?”

He had to wait a moment until John’s brain processed the question, “Yeah, but not for several years,” he replied. Not since Mitch had died in Afghanistan in fact, but John wasn’t going to dwell on that, not now.

John found that lying on his side made it very awkward to touch properly, having one arm trapped under him. He didn’t let it stop him exploring Rodney’s body though, running his free hand all over, touching Rodney’s own nipples until they hardened.

As Carson added a second finger, John’s hips began thrusting gently, almost against his will. He moved his hand down to Rodney’s ass, pulling him in tight so that his rocking caused some wonderful friction and some moaning. There was lots of moaning and sighing and panting, from all three men, but very few coherent words were spoken, one of them being “God,” as Carson crooked his fingers and stroked John’s prostate.

Carson added a final finger, hitting John’s prostate again for good measure, then started to slowly slide inside, eyes slipping closed at the sensation, breath coming in short pants. John was panting too, but some of that was due to the pain of penetration. Rodney distracted him from that by wrapping his hand around John’s and his own erection and stroking them together, in time to Carson’s thrusts. He watched John’s face, entranced by how open and vulnerable John looked like this. How hot too, with the hazel of his eyes almost completely swallowed up by his pupils, until only a thin ring of almost-green remained round the edges. He dragged his gaze away from those eyes to look into Carson’s, finding a similar sight, only with blue rather than green. He imagined his own looked much the same.

Carson and Rodney gradually increased their movements while John rocked, almost helplessly, between them. He gasped when Carson found the right angle to stroke his prostate. Carson felt himself getting close so he thrust his hips at that same angle over and over, causing John to make an almost keening whine. Rodney quickened his hand at that noise and it was all too much for John, sending him over the edge with a broken sigh. The feel of John’s come, coupled with John somehow having enough awareness to pull Rodney in tight and push a finger into him, took Rodney along right after him, almost simultaneously with Carson, who had been dragged into orgasm when he felt John contracting around him.

They lay in a sticky, sweaty, but contented heap for a few moments, then Carson reluctantly drew back and flopped onto his back, still panting heavily. John made a small noise of disappointment as he felt Carson pull free. He leant in and kissed Rodney sloppily, then turned over and draped himself over Carson’s chest, resting his head just below Carson’s shoulder and flinging an arm over his waist. Rodney took a second to admire the view then leaned over John to kiss Carson thoroughly. He then flopped down along John’s side, wedging a leg between John’s and laying his arm across John’s shoulders so that his hand could rest on Carson’s chest. They lay in silence for a while, drifting, until John mumbled, “No sleeping,” in a very drowsy voice.

“Hmm,” Rodney agreed. Carson didn’t say anything at all.

They stayed that way, floating on the cusp of sleep, for what was probably minutes, but felt like hours, until suddenly John stiffened and gasped.

“John?” Carson asked worriedly, afraid that the Ancient was trying yet again.

John shuddered and whispered, “Atlantis. It’s trying to merge with Atlantis.” He turned stricken eyes to Carson and continued, “I have to go back, she needs me to sit in the chair.”

*~*

At that exact moment, back in the control room, everyone looked on in awed horror as the Ancient thrust it’s many tentacles into various consoles. The plan had been working perfectly, the Ancient being forced along a set path, until it had arrived in the control room.

Radek wasn’t entirely sure if the Ancient had detected the weak spot in one of the force fields and attacked it until the shield failed, or whether it had launched a concerted attack on a single area thus making it weaken and fail. Either way the results were the same: The Ancient was free and it was doing it’s damnedest to assimilate itself into Atlantis’ core. Atlantis was putting up a fight though, apparently, as there were lots of sparking and exploding consoles. Luckily the exploding ones were unmanned.

Radek, Kavanagh and Simpson were in the control room when it all went bad. They were frantically running interference for Atlantis, powering some of the consoles down when the Ancient moved to them, stopping it hooking another tentacle into Atlantis’ ‘brain’, putting up some force fields where they could. They were only weak, due to the power being fought over between Atlantis and her invader, but they slowed the Ancient a small amount, forcing it to divide its attention in order to collapse the fields.

Elizabeth looked on, not sure how much longer the scientists and Atlantis could keep the Ancient out, not wanting to contemplate what it would mean for Atlantis, for John, indeed for any of them, if the Ancient should succeed.

*~*

John levered himself out of the pile of limbs and started snatching clothes on. Carson scrambled up after him and flung clothes at Rodney before climbing into his own. They both watched John carefully, catching the tiny twitches and flinches as, presumably, Atlantis fought off the Ancient. Neither of them missed the fact that John was aware without them touching him. Carson hoped it wasn’t simply a case of endorphins from the mind blowing sex and adrenalin from the worry, but actually meant that the Ancient couldn’t concentrate on getting control of John _and_ Atlantis.

As soon as they were dressed they ran for the jumper, passing a startled Halling on the way. “Problem in Atlantis, we’ll explain later,” Carson said as they ran past, not waiting to see if the Athosian made any reply.

Again John headed straight for the pilot’s seat. This time it was Carson to tug him back, “Let Rodney fly,” he said. Adding, “We still don’t know whether the Ancient will be able to get hold of you when you interface with the jumper, John, and you won’t be any help to Atlantis if you’re unable to get to the chair,” when it looked as though John would protest.

John nodded and settled behind Rodney as he shouldered his way into the pilot seat and lifted off. Carson sat behind the co-pilot’s seat stretching his arm into the aisle so as to grip John’s hand tightly. He wasn’t risking John suddenly losing whatever edge was keeping the Ancient away.

Rodney flew in a miraculously straight line and pushed the jumper for as much speed as he dared. He radioed control as they approached but got no reply, causing all three mens’ heart rates to skyrocket, imagining all sorts of scenarios.

Rodney landed in the jumper bay and snatched John’s other hand as they dashed into control, momentarily stunned by what they saw.

Everyone was so focused that it was a total shock when John, Rodney and Carson ran in. Elizabeth let out a startled, “John?” as she dashed down the steps to meet her three senior department heads.

As she drew near, she saw that John’s grip on Carson and Rodney’s hands was white knuckled and he had a bewildered and pain filled look on his face. She didn’t understand why he had come back, why Carson and Rodney had let him come back, but it became clear as soon as Rodney said, “He felt Atlantis when the Ancient started it’s attack, she needs him to sit in the chair.”

Elizabeth glanced between the three grim expressions, lingering on John’s vaguely dazed eyes, then nodded decisively. If John said he needed to be in the chair, she would accept that. She could get explanations when the crisis was over. “Go,” was all she said, stepping to the side to let them passed.

They dashed from the control room, Carson and Rodney trying desperately to keep up with John’s more athletic sprint, and tumbled into the chair room, where John wrenched his hands free and hurled himself into the chair. It lit up and reclined as soon as John made contact and he shut his eyes, pushing himself deeper into Atlantis than he’d ever been before. Carson and Rodney had nothing to do other than watch John anxiously, but Carson stepped closer and tried to keep an eye on John’s physical condition while Rodney moved to the chair console and tried to find out what exactly John was doing.

*~*

John found himself in a strange world, a place he wouldn’t ever be able to describe. He spared a fleeting thought for how irritated Rodney would be by that, but the thought was snatched away almost as it formed. There was sound here, the hum he’d described earlier, only much louder. And colours darted about in a way that he was sure would have made a logical pattern if he had time to figure it out. But he instinctively knew what he needed to do, moving through the matrix in search of discordant tones in the hum and blackness where there should be colour.

He would never be able to tell Rodney what he did either, simply acting instinctually, without conscious thought, but from the external readings Rodney was getting it seemed that power was being rerouted much faster than Radek and company could manage manually. John was systematically shutting the Ancient’s access down as he took power away from it and started putting Kavanagh’s force fields back up. Atlantis had tried to do this herself, tried to help Radek, Kavanagh and Simpson as they worked at the consoles, but it needed the human interface to be successful. Atlantis wasn’t authorised to shut some of her systems down and doing it manually was simply too time consuming compared to the speed of thought.

Finally, John and Atlantis succeeded in getting the last of the Ancient’s foothold away from it and forcing it back to the gate. John began dialling the gate.

*~*

In the control room, Peter saw the gate begin to dial and called to Elizabeth. Too many of the systems were shut down to know who was dialling so she had Peter abort the sequence.

*~*

John whimpered and arched up in the chair, Carson noticed a small trail of blood start from his nose and made an abortive gesture towards him, not knowing at this point whether it would do more harm to forcibly remove John from the chair.

John’s eyes snapped open; he tilted his head in Rodney’s general direction, but his eyes remained unfocused. “Tell ‘Lizbeth to let gate open,” he ground out hoarsely.

Rodney immediately radioed her saying, “Elizabeth, John’s opening the gate from here, and you need to let him do it.”

 _“Acknowledged,”_ was the terse reply.

John relaxed again and his eyes slid shut. Carson assumed he had begun dialling again when the trickle of blood increased slightly and John’s eyes screwed tight shut in pain. He looked across to Rodney bleakly, his look mirrored back at him.

*~*

Elizabeth watched as the gate began dialling again, the lights and force fields flickering alarmingly. She hated to think what remote dialling was doing to John if it was having this effect on Atlantis. Finally, though, the last chevron locked and the stargate whooshed open.

It was only as the plume of not-water shot out and engulfed the Ancient that she realised just how close the barriers had forced it to the gate. There was a collective gasp as the gate pulled back and settled in the giant ring, waiting for something to go through that would now never be able to do so. Everyone stood frozen for a second, trying to comprehend the fact that the Ancient had just been killed…murdered in fact. Elizabeth straightened and headed for the chair room at a run, wanting to find out why John had done it, or whether Atlantis had taken matters into her own hands.

She dropped to a walk a few steps before entering the chair room, wanting to appear somewhat composed. She took in the scene as she walked in: Carson sat leaning against a wall legs splayed wide, John sat curled against him so that his right side was pressed to Carson’s chest, his head tucked against his shoulder, partially under Carson’s jaw, his left hand curled loosely and resting close to his face. His legs were pulled up so that his hips rested between Carson’s legs and his feet were on the outside of Carson’s left leg. He looked like an overgrown little boy, she thought. Carson had one arm clasped to John’s left shoulder and the other wrapped around John’s waist. John was unconscious.

“Carson?” Elizabeth asked, all thoughts of the Ancient and it’s fate momentarily driven from her mind by worry for John.

“Just sleeping,” Carson said quietly, trying not to disturb his charge.

Elizabeth turned to Rodney. “What happened? The plan was for the Ancient to go through the gate, not be reduced to its component atoms by it! Either John or Atlantis just murdered an Ascended Ancient!”

Rodney looked stunned; they hadn’t known what was happening in the gate room. He shook his head, but before he could say anything John mumbled, “Both of us.”

Elizabeth turned and she and Rodney made their way over to crouch by John and Carson. “Both of you?” Elizabeth prompted.

“Mmm,” John drawled, still mostly asleep. “When I’m in the chair I’m not John Sheppard,” he said, “I’m part of Atlantis, so we both had a hand in the Ancient’s death. It was self-defence, Elizabeth; we saw how mad the Ancient was when we were purging it. It would have tried to come back, it wanted revenge on those who forced it to ascend in the first place, but they’re all gone. It knew Atlantis though, knew that this is where it had been kept for all those centuries, and I was as near to an Ancient as it could find, so it wanted to break us. It was completely insane.” He shuddered and pressed closer to Carson with the last words, eyelids drooping again.

Elizabeth considered for a moment. Reaching a decision she said, “Very well, Major Sheppard, I expect a full report on my desk as soon as you can.”

John nodded, but said, “That may be difficult. I don’t have the words to describe this, I’ve already tried to explain some of it to Carson and Rodney, but I don’t think I’ve had much success.” He seemed genuinely apologetic, so Elizabeth simply sighed and nodded.

“Well, whatever you can explain, then. I need some sort of report for this incident.” John managed a nod- more a slight downward movement of his chin than anything really. The strain and sleeplessness were starting to get to him now and he was all but passed out from exhaustion.

“We need a bigger room,” Rodney suddenly announced, apropos of nothing as far as Elizabeth could see. She blinked and frowned, about to ask him what he was talking about, when it suddenly dawned on her that Carson was in John’s long sleeved black t-shirt and John was in a blue shirt that was a little loose on his lean frame. Now she was looking, she also saw just how tightly Carson was holding John. She’d initially read it as support for an exhausted friend, but now she saw that Carson was holding John in a possessive/protective manner. She looked to Rodney, seeing his soft expression as he watched the other two men. He felt her gaze and looked over, “He’s ours now, we decided to keep him.” It was said lightly, but Elizabeth heard the undercurrent of challenge. It seemed the thoughts she’d had whilst listening to Rodney’s radio transmission yesterday were correct. She wasn’t quite sure what to think about this yet, she needed time to think things over.

“’M not…dog,” John mumbled, managing to sound slightly annoyed.

“Oh, you’re not? Well then, I guess we’ll have to take you back. It was really a dog I wanted. One of those with all the shaggy hair…although, you have silly hair, maybe we can be persuaded to keep you for a trial period.”

“Hey, no fair picking on me when I’m asleep,” John protested.

“You’re talking, therefore not sleeping,” Rodney helpfully pointed out.

“Technicality,” John told Carson’s chest.

Carson decided it was probably wise to get John to a bed before he completely passed out. “Come on, John, time to get going.” He motioned for Rodney to give him a hand getting John upright. Once he was mostly on his feet and Carson had a secure grip on him he said, “We’ll take him back to our room for tonight, there’s plenty of time to sort out bigger quarters when we’re not all sleep deprived.”

Rodney nodded. “Will you be able to manage him on your own? I need to have a word with Elizabeth.” Carson had a pretty good idea that the ‘word’ would actually be something to do with their acquisition of one USAF Major.

He nodded to Rodney, knowing that there was little point in delaying Rodney’s rant and wanting John to be out of earshot when Rodney and Elizabeth started arguing about him. “Aye, Rodney, we’ll be fine. See you soon.” With that he turned and started their slow stumble to their bed, half carrying John.

Once the door to the chair room closed behind Carson and John, Rodney turned to Elizabeth with eyebrows raised in question. He wanted to see just what she had to say about the three of them moving in together.

Elizabeth thought for a moment, wanting to get her mind in order before starting to deal with Rodney. He got impatient though, unsurprisingly. “There’s really not much you can do to stop this, Elizabeth,” he asserted.

“Have you really thought this through, Rodney?” she asked, “Have you considered how this will affect the expedition? It’s one thing for two civilians to be in a gay relationship, but three? That would be pushing things. To have one of the three be the head of military operations is just asking for trouble. I’m not sure John will keep the respect of his men if you do this. And there’s your team dynamic to consider too.”

“What, so he just has to carry on being alone and unhappy for ever?” Rodney was incredulous.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Rodney. John isn’t unhappy.”

“Isn’t he?” Rodney’s eyes flashed, Elizabeth knew he was furious now by the way his voice stayed so quiet. If he’d been shouting she would have known he was blowing off steam, but this…this was real and it made her stop what she’d been about to say and raise an eyebrow for Rodney to continue.

“Don’t you think you’ve made enough decisions for him now, Elizabeth?” he smiled grimly at her confused expression. “He told us all about how he ended up here. How you went over his head and basically had O’Neill emotionally blackmail him into coming along because you wanted his gene.”

Elizabeth was taken aback by this, she’d asked Colonel O’Neill to talk to John, but she’d just assumed that’s what he’d done. She said as much.

“Oh, well that’s alright then. The fact remains, Elizabeth, that you didn’t like his answer and went above him to get the one you wanted. And then he ends up in command of the whole military contingent, becomes responsible for the safety of the entire expedition and you start playing your little games to keep him under control.”

This really did shock Elizabeth. “I do no such thing, Rodney. I do what I think is right for this expedition and it sometimes goes against what John suggests, but there’s no game involved. You have to admit that John can be reckless. I simply try to avoid that.”

“Yes he can be a reckless idiot. I’m fully aware of that, Elizabeth. But have you ever stopped to realise that some of his most reckless endeavours directly follow an occasion where you’ve flatly refused to listen to his recommendations?” not giving her a chance to respond, Rodney forged on with, “I’m pretty sure his men will be fine with this. Apart from the fact that they were all extensively vetted before being assigned, he’s won their respect. You know, I think that’s what irks you. John will always have the military contingent’s respect and loyalty through his actions. Many of them didn’t like him or want him as their leader, but he’s proven time and again that he’s worthy to lead them, and you have to stay here, safe in your office for the most part. That won’t earn you the same loyalty as risking your life on the front lines to save the lowliest non-com. They’ll follow him whatever he does with his private life, because they know he’ll fight for them regardless.”

He took a breath and Elizabeth tried to get a word in, but he was off again before she had the chance. “And you mention the team dynamic. The Athosians don’t care who sleeps with whom, so Teyla will be fine with it. Ford follows John round like a little puppy- massive case of hero worship which nothing will be able to dent, and if you’re concerned about John and I being distracted during a skirmish or whatever, well, I’m afraid we’ve both passed that point some time ago. This isn’t a spontaneous overnight crush, Elizabeth. It turns out John’s been wanting this for ages, and Carson and I discussed it a while back too. If it was going to affect our actions in the field, it already would have.”

Elizabeth waited a few seconds, but Rodney appeared to be done this time. “Okay, Rodney, you raise some good points and I really don’t want John to be unhappy- that was never my intention. But, I don’t ever want to see any evidence of this affecting your work. As soon as that happens you’ll be off his team to avoid the conflict of interests. And if this ends badly, you’ll still have to work together all the time.”

“The same could be said of Carson and I,” he pointed out. “And don’t worry, Elizabeth, I’m pretty sure this is a long term thing.” His anger had evaporated now that Elizabeth was being accepting.

She sighed. “Now that that’s sorted, go and see them, catch up on your sleep…and you look for bigger quarters on your own time.” Rodney grinned, nodded and left. Elizabeth blew out another sigh and headed slowly back to her office, thinking over what Rodney had said about her part in John’s being here and his foolish risk taking. He’d given her something to think about.

*~*

Rodney entered his and Carson’s quarters and smiled at the scene before him: Carson sat along the edge of the bed, propped up against the wall at the head end, John was curled up next to him with his head in Carson’s lap, sleeping soundly, and Carson was absently alternating between stroking the hair off John’s forehead and carding his fingers through the rest- apparently John’s hair was Carson’s new favourite thing. The only thing wrong with this picture, as far as Rodney was concerned, was the number of clothes. Carson had looked up when he entered and must have read this thought as he said, “I didn’t fancy manhandling him out of anything more than jacket and boots. He may be skinny, but he’s still dead weight when asleep.”

Rodney smiled at that and walked over to the bed. He kissed Carson thoroughly, but neither felt the need for anything more at the moment. They were both too tired from all the stress and missed sleep. Rodney moved to the other side of the bed, removed his own jacket and boots, and arranged himself in the space left by John having drawn his feet up. He gazed at John for a bit and decided, “He looks so much younger when he’s asleep.”

They were both surprised when John replied with, “Are you saying I look old normally?”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you,” Rodney said contritely. He rested his hand lightly on John’s back and started moving it in slow circles. “And no, I didn’t mean you look old, it’s more that you’re relaxed, whereas, when you’re awake, you have the world on your shoulders.”

“Oh, okay then. And don’t worry about waking me, I’m a soldier, we sleep lightly.” Neither Carson nor Rodney particularly wanted to dwell on the reasons for a soldier- for John- to have to sleep lightly.

John sighed suddenly and levered himself to a sitting position. “Where do you think you’re going?” Rodney enquired.

“To my room,” John said, “This bed’s not big enough for all of us…and the Ancient’s gone now, so I don’t need the endorphins anymore.” This last was said a little sadly.

Rodney and Carson exchanged a concerned look. “Of course you need the endorphins,” Rodney said, “They’re _fun_!”

“What you mean is that now the crisis has passed we’re kicking you out,” Carson guessed. At John’s tiny nod, he continued with, “I’m not sure whether to be offended that you think that about myself or Rodney- that we would really treat you like that, or concerned by this alarming lack of self esteem you seem to have.” John avoided both their gazes.

“God, and I thought _I_ had issues!” Rodney exclaimed. “Can you make Atlantis show you what I spoke to Elizabeth about just now?” he enquired.

John glanced at him from the corner of his eye and said, “I think so,” then put action to words and concentrated. His gaze went distant and then his eyes widened a little and his mouth formed a silent ‘oh’. He blinked a couple of times and then stared at Rodney. “You really said all that to her? For me?”

“Well, for all three of us, but yes, I said all that.”

“Care to fill me in?” Carson wondered. So Rodney gave him the highlights. Carson was impressed. John still seemed a little stunned.

Carson had a sudden thought, “Can you ask Atlantis about bigger rooms?”

John grinned at him and went unfocused for a second or two. He looked between Rodney and Carson, grinning a grin that made their mouths go dry. “Follow me,” he said excitedly. He was so eager to get to wherever he was headed that his tiredness dropped away and he forgot to put his boots back on. Rodney rolled his eyes in amusement and Carson picked them up and carried them. Rodney snatched up the lube from the bedside table on his way after them.

John led them to a transporter, which took them to one of the higher levels in the central tower. He then moved down the corridor a short distance and stopped in front of a door. It opened and he gestured grandly, “After you, sirs.”

Rodney and Carson went through the door and stopped abruptly. The wall in front of them was mostly glass and offered a spectacular view. The room itself was larger than their own, more like a suite with the bedroom separate from the living area. John led them into the bedroom and they were greeted by a bed that would comfortably hold all three of them with room to spare. He flung himself down into the middle of it and grinned up at them a little smugly.

“Where are we, John?” Rodney wanted to know.

“VIP quarters. They used to be used for visiting dignitaries, but we don’t really have many of those, so Atlantis thinks we can spare this suite for ourselves. She says it’s the best of the VIP quarters. She likes me,” he grinned.

Rodney decided he was looking far too smug now and that a thorough kissing was the only way to wipe the look away. Carson must have agreed because as soon as Rodney came up for air Carson took his place. Eventually Carson had to breathe too and he sat back next to Rodney- one kneeling either side of John but leaning over enough to touch shoulders. They stared down at him until John started to squirm a bit. “What?” he asked.

“Just admiring the view,” Rodney answered.

“Well, the view would like you to admire in a more hands on fashion,” John announced.

“Would it now? What do you think, Carson?”

Carson sat and considered for a moment then said, “I want this in me,” as he reached out and stroked lightly up and down John’s eager erection once through his pants. John’s hips arched into the teasing contact and he whimpered.

Rodney fought to keep his voice casual, just about succeeding when he said, “Yes, that’s a great plan; it leaves that lovely ass free for me.” John’s hands fisted the sheets at his sides and his hips twitched up into Carson’s hand that he had ‘forgotten’ to remove from it’s resting place. “I think he likes that plan,” Rodney added at this.

“It’s a fine plan,” Carson confirmed, also fighting to sound casual.

“Hmm, there are entirely too many clothes for it to be successful, however,” Rodney pointed out, receiving noises of assent from Carson and John. Carson pulled off his- well, technically, John’s- shirt over his head, while Rodney scooted off the bed to start undressing. He saw John’s hands move to the hem of the blue shirt he’d ended up wearing in the dash back to Atlantis. “Stay!” he rapped out, wanting the pleasure of undressing John for himself.

If possible, John’s eyes darkened even further and his breath hitched, but he moved his hands back to his sides, staring up at Rodney. “Well, there _are_ some orders you’ll follow after all,” Rodney teased.

“I don’t know,” John replied, “You’ll have to try me.”

“Mmmm, a challenge, Carson,” he looked over to see that Carson was completely naked now and hurried to catch up. They then turned their attention to John; Rodney pulling off his trousers while Carson dealt with his shirt.

“Right. John, shift over to the side a bit, Carson, hands and knees over him,” Rodney took charge.

“I don’t remember saying anything about myself being ordered around,” Carson pointed out.

“Are you going to argue about it?” Rodney asked, incredulous.

Carson considered for a second then said, “No, I suppose not,” and arranged himself as directed.

Rodney hummed in satisfaction. “Good. You can play with John, but nothing below the waist,” was his next order. Carson was happy to comply, using one arm to prop himself up and running the other over John’s chest, playing with his nipples and lightly tugging the hair there. John’s breath hitched and Carson grinned down at him, his expression becoming unfocused as he felt Rodney push a slick finger inside him. He gasped and his eyes half closed.

Rodney saw John start to move his hands towards Carson. “I didn’t say you could move,” he said. John made a noise in the back of his throat and dropped his hands again. Carson took pity on him and leaned down to kiss him sloppily.

Carson alternated between running his hand over John and leaning down to kiss him as Rodney added a second, then third, finger. His hips were rocking back onto Rodney’s fingers now and he groaned and shuddered every time Rodney stroked his prostate.

Eventually, Rodney decided he was prepared sufficiently and directed him to lie on his back. Once Carson had done so, Rodney said, “John?” John didn’t need telling twice and settled himself between Carson’s legs, forcing himself to be still and wait for Rodney’s next order.

Rodney arranged them so that John’s forearms held Carson’s knees back towards his chest, thus making it almost impossible for John to move a hand without collapsing. Satisfied, Rodney allowed John to push into Carson, both of them moaning in pleasure at the sensation. Once John was as far inside as he could go Rodney said, “Keep still.”

“Oh God,” John all but sobbed.

“Hell, Rodney, are you trying to kill us?” Carson whined. He watched John’s jaw clench in the effort to keep still. Carson had an easier time following the order, pinned as he was by John’s weight.

Rodney grinned down at him and said, “No, just enjoying the phenomenon of you pair actually doing what I say.” That said he pushed a slick finger into John.

John sucked in a ragged breath and squeezed his eyes shut. Carson could feel John’s arms shaking against the back of his legs. As Rodney added more fingers Carson watched John’s face, entranced. John was making ragged gasping sounds now and his hips jerked quickly, John unable to stop the movement, when Rodney curled his fingers against John’s prostate.

Carson was suddenly overcome by the need to see John’s eyes, “John,” he whispered as he reached up to cup the side of his face. John’s eyes snapped open and Carson found himself drowning in fathomless black, all traces of hazel swallowed up save for a tiny halo. He sucked in a breath at the sight.

Rodney wasn’t as unmoved as he was pretending to be. Hard and aching, he didn’t draw John’s preparation out as long as he had Carson’s, desperate to be inside John.

He pulled his fingers out, John making a small noise at the loss, and pushed in slowly, eyes sliding closed in pleasure. Rodney had hoped to draw this out for as long as possible, but once he was actually buried in John, his plan went out the window and he set up a fast but steady rhythm. Rodney’s thrusts pushed John into Carson and he drew back as Rodney did. Rodney got steadily faster as he felt his orgasm draw near. As he started to lose his rhythm he reached between John and Carson and began stroking Carson’s neglected cock, getting a groan for his efforts.

Rodney noticed that the lights started flickering, but wasn’t really in the right frame of mind to wonder about it, filing it away for a better time. Suddenly, Carson could take no more and he came, stuttering out various incoherent words which may, or may not, have contained ‘John’ and ‘Rodney’ among them.

He set off a chain reaction as he clenched down on John, who had been right on the edge for some time thanks to Rodney’s exquisite torture. As he came the lights flickered even more frantically. In turn, John’s orgasm dragged Rodney over the edge with a wordless cry.

They all slumped, exhausted, laying for a moment until Carson managed, “Lads. Heavy.” Rodney carefully pulled out of John and collapsed to one side of Carson, snuggling close as soon as John pulled out and Carson was able to lower his legs with a slight groan. John moved close and lay his head on Carson’s chest, Carson lifting his hand up to play with John’s hair- definitely one of his new favourite things to do.

They stayed there, skirting the edge of sleep, until Rodney’s brain suddenly kicked back into gear. “So,” he started, “Does that always happen, John?”

“Huh?”

“The lights. They flickered when you came.”

“Oh, uh…I don’t know…I…uh…I haven’t had sex since we got here,” the last said in a frantic rush.

Carson’s hand stilled momentarily. “You’ve not?” John shook his head.

Rodney raised his head so he could stare at John, “ _You_ haven’t had sex since we got here?” he didn’t sound like he believed John.

“No. And why are you looking at me like that?” John was feeling a little self-conscious now.

“Sorry, it’s just difficult to believe. I mean _look_ at you!” Rodney was incredulous, though secretly pleased that he and Carson were the sole people to see John in all his glory.

“It’s not like I didn’t get any offers,“ John said indignantly.

“Of course not. That was my point. God, we really need to work on your self esteem, don’t we?” John ducked his head at this, so Carson decided it was time to cut Rodney off before he said anything more.

“So, son. The lights?”

“I really don’t think you should be calling me ‘son’ when we’ve just had sex, Carson. It conjures up all sorts of unpleasant thoughts.” John stalled.

“Aye, I’ll try not to do it again, but don’t avoid the subject.”

John pouted at having been caught out. Carson and Rodney both thought he looked adorable like that, but thought it best not to say so. John went a little unfocused as he spoke with Atlantis and when he ‘came back’, he blushed slightly and looked down. “She said that she enjoyed that and hopes we do it often.”

“Ugh, our _home_ is a voyeur. That’s just wrong,” was Rodney’s response. Carson just looked faintly disturbed.

Radek’s voice suddenly came over the comm, _“Zelenka to McKay,”_

“McKay here, what do you want, Zlinky?”

Radek made what sounded like a growl, then said, _“We’ve just read a strange power fluctuation in the central tower. There isn’t anything there, so I don’t know what it could be and a diagnostic didn’t turn up any cause I could see.”_

The three exchanged horrified/amused looks and Rodney thought quickly. “Erm, that was John, Radek. We’re in the tower with Carson, investigating John’s connection with Atlantis. We thought it best to do it out of the way so as not to disrupt any normal operations,” he turned wide eyes on the other two, frowning when he was met by two almost identical faces- lips being bitten to contain their mirth and eyes crinkled in amusement.

*~*

Radek didn’t believe Rodney for a second, but he had a sneaking suspicion about just what exactly had been going on in the tower and decided it was best to accept Rodney’s statement over the open channels and rib him about it later in private.

“Very well, Rodney. It might have been nice if you warned me before hand so that I could ignore it and leave you alone to _blow_ things up.” Okay, so he couldn’t entirely resist the emphasis. He listened to Rodney’s sputtered acknowledgement with amusement. His work was done here, he went about his business.

*~*

Rodney signed off and then said, “Oh God, I think Radek’s figured it out.”

“Is that a problem?” John asked.

“Only insofar as he’ll be insufferable, dropping innuendoes everywhere and being entirely too smug!” Rodney replied as if it was a crisis of epic proportions.

Carson chuckled, “Well, John and I will be able to avoid him, so you’ll have to deal with him yourself. I’m sure we’ll be able to think of ways to take your mind off of it.”

“Yes, fine, but you may want to tell Atlantis to keep better control of herself or, at least, mask the power fluctuations somehow. There’re only so many excuses we can use for this you know!”

John nodded and smirked. “I’ll be sure to tell her that in time for our next ‘experiment’.” He had a sudden worrying thought, “Who’s going to tell Elizabeth about our new address?”

Rodney was quick to point out that, “I’ve already spoken to her at great length on the subject of us three moving in together. I’m absenting myself from this responsibility.”

“Well, I can’t do it, not after you said all that stuff about me. She’ll be insufferably contrite…or she’ll avoid me.” He looked at Carson pleadingly.

Carson frowned but Rodney added his own pleading look and he caved. “Fine! I’ll do it, but you lads had better think of some way to make it up to me.” He wondered if that was the wisest challenge to have set when he noticed Rodney’s speculatory look and John’s down right predatory smile.

“That won’t be a problem, will it, Rodney?” John asked.

Rodney shook his head, “No, we’re very bright you know, Carson.” He looked smug.

Carson sighed, closed his eyes and ordered, “Sleep now, I can’t be dealing with the pair of you until I’ve had at least eight hours rest!” He wondered just what he’d let himself in for, but soon forgot to be worried when he felt two heads settle on his chest and his hand made it’s now familiar way to John’s hair.

He was just on the edge of sleep again when he heard John say, very quietly, “I love you guys.” He cracked an eye open and caught the huge grin Rodney sent his way, he then tilted his head in John’s direction, but John was fast asleep- or at least pretending to be.

In case it was the latter, Carson responded softly with, “I love you too, John.”

Rodney leaned up for a quick kiss from Carson and whispered, “I’m glad we kept him,” with a small smile.

Carson nodded and closed his eyes again, drifting off to sleep to the sound of Rodney’s soft almost-snores and John’s slow, deep breathing.

*~*

FIN


End file.
